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The increasing numbers of bank anglers and powerboats on the Kenai River may be damaging the river habitat.

The Alaska Department of Fish & Game released two long-delayed reports in October addressing the effect of bank angling and powerboat use on bank erosion in the Kenai River. The reports, covering the years 2000 and 2001, found that as more anglers fished the river, the more banks crumbled and vegetation disappeared.

The reports are the final two installments of a series commissioned by the Board of Fisheries in 1996 to study the effects of increased sport fishing participation on the Kenai River after the board increased the sockeye salmon escapement goal.

Sport fishing participation more than tripled on the Kenai River between 1977 and 1995. The Board of Fisheries requested that the ADF&G monitor angler use and impacts to the habitats on the river, which was done from 1997 to 2001.

Although the reports from 1997, 1998 and 1999 were published within two or three years, the reports from 2000 and 2001 never appeared.

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